More than 300 complaints of “cruelty to children” and 11 counts of unnecessary treatment spurred raid on MCG Dental Management’s Children’s Dentistry of Rome (Rome. Georgia)

December 3, 2012 -- A dental office in Rome, GA, has been searched after numerous complaints were filed about the practice's alleged overuse of child restraints and the performance of unnecessary dental work on children, according to a press release sent to media outlets by Lt. Gary Clayton of the Criminal Investigations Division of the Rome Police Department (RPD).

Police investigators, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, executed a search warrant on Children's Dentistry of Rome, under the management of MCG Management, to obtain dental records pertaining to a criminal investigation. No charges have been filed.

According to an article in the Rome News-Tribune, there are more than 300 Medicaid patients named on the search warrant affidavit filed in Floyd County Superior Court. The affidavit also contains 11 reports of unnecessary treatment being performed, sometimes with the use of papoose boards, on 14 children in which trauma resulted.

As a result, authorities believe there is probable cause for investigating the practice's dentists, hygienists, and owners(if I could make these three words flash in neon, I would) for cruelty to children and payments that they were not entitled to, the article stated.

In May 2011, RPD Detective Joe Costolnick received a complaint from the parent of a 3-year-old allegedly injured during treatment at the practice and an investigation was launched. Shortly thereafter, Costolnick learned of other police reports containing abuse allegations going back to 2008.

So Mr. or Ms. Dentist, how did you decide to treat your patient this morning?